Blue Swede () were a Swedish rock band fronted by

Björn Skifs Björn Nils Olof Skifs (; born 20 April 1947) is a Swedish singer, songwriter, actor, and screenwriter. Skifs has represented Sweden twice in the Eurovision Song Contest, in the 1978 contest and in the 1981 contest. Career Björn Skifs formed ...

which was active between the years 1973–1979. Blue Swede released two albums of

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s, including a rendition of " Hooked on a Feeling", which brought them international chart success. The band consisted of Anders Berglund (piano), Björn Skifs (lead vocals), Bosse Liljedahl (bass), Hinke Ekestubbe (saxophone), Jan Guldbäck (drums), Michael Areklew (guitar), and Tommy Berglund (trumpet). They disbanded after Skifs decided to embark on his solo career.

Career

Blue Swede was first formed in 1973, when

, a top vocalist in Sweden, was looking for a band to accompany him during his concerts. The band was originally called "Blåblus" (Swedish for "blue blouse" ould be made out of denim a pun on the word "blues") and featured Skifs singing the lead vocals. The band got their international breakthrough in 1974 with their cover of the 1968 B. J. Thomas song " Hooked on a Feeling". Blue Swede recorded Thomas's song in 1973, but based its rendition of the song on a 1971 version released by British pop eccentric

Jonathan King Jonathan King (born Kenneth George King; 6 December 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and record producer. He first came to prominence in 1965 when "Everyone's Gone to the Moon", a song that he wrote and sang while still an undergraduate, ...

, which created the "ooga-chaka" introduction. The producer at the recording sessions was Bengt Palmers. Blue Swede released "Hooked on a Feeling" in Sweden in May 1973 and in the United States in February 1974. The song reached number one in the U.S. for one week in April 1974 and stayed in the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

for 18 weeks. The track also topped charts in Australia, Canada, and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, where it reached a peak chart position of 26. To capitalize on the success of the song, Blue Swede released the album '' Hooked on a Feeling'' that same year. Throughout the rest of 1974, two follow-up singles from the same LP were released: "Silly Milly", which peaked at position 71 in the U.S., and a cover of

The Association The Association is an American sunshine pop band from Los Angeles, California. During the late 1960s, the band had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts, ''Billboard'' charts (including "Windy (The Association song), Windy" ...

's "

Never My Love "Never My Love" is a pop standard written by American siblings Don and Dick Addrisi, and best known from a hit 1967 recording by the Association. The Addrisi Brothers had two Top 40 hits as recording artists, but their biggest success as songwri ...

", which made the Top Ten by peaking at position 7. From the band's 1974 follow-up album, ''Out of the Blue'', they recorded a medley of " Hush" by

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

and "I'm Alive" by Tommy James and the Shondells (not

The Hollies The Hollies are an English rock and pop band formed in Manchester in 1962. One of the leading British groups of the 1960s and into the mid-1970s, they are known for their distinctive three-part vocal harmony style. Singer Allan Clarke and ...

' song of the same name), peaking at position 61 in the U.S., and achieving its greatest chart success in

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

. Skifs left the band in 1975 and the band continued as Blåblus, releasing a further two albums.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Notes

References